You're invited to the top party houses

1 A very English affair

One of the great houses of England, Cliveden, former home of the Astor family, is infamous as the venue where Sixties It girl Christine Keeler met the War Minister John Profumo in 1961. In the early 1900s, Nancy Astor lavishly entertained guests who included Charlie Chaplin and George Bernard Shaw. Today, the house is owned by the National Trust and leased to hotel group the von Essen collection, which runs it as a five-star, 38-bedroom hotel. Your fellow guests? A mix of film stars, models, politicians and old-money gentry.

Party place: the French Dining Room, where Nancy hosted her famous dinner parties.

Staying there: Cliveden, Taplow, Berkshire (01628 668561; clivedenhouse. co.uk). Doubles from £393 per room per night, including breakfast.

2 Play politics in Dublin

The architect Sam Stephenson made Number 31 his Dublin home in 1958. It quickly became a hang-out for the movers and shakers of the swinging Sixties. Guests included Ted Kennedy, Charles Haughey and Henry Kissinger. Today, it's an upscale b&b visited by savvy Americans and Hibernophiles.

Party place: the Conversation Pit, a large space sunk into the floor, where the famous used to chit-chat.

Staying there: Number 31, 31 Leeson Close, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin (00 353 1 676 5011; number 31.ie). Doubles from €175 (£120) per room per night. British Airways (0870 850 9850; ba.com) flies Gatwick to Dublin from £68 return.

3 Just the Italian job

Tucked away on the shores of Lake Garda, the Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli is a 1892 neo-Gothic mansion set in eight acres of private parkland. It was the last residence of Mussolini, who was held prisoner here. House-party guests of the Feltrinelli family are thought to have included everyone from Winston Churchill to DH Lawrence. Bob Burns, the founder of Regent International Hotels, acquired the property in the 1990s and the Villa opened its doors to the public in 2001. The Villa embraces the fairytale look of an "Italian castle", brightly painted in Venetian gold and terracotta, and features 13 bedrooms within the main house and eight in four guest cottages. Today, residents include captains of industry and holidaying cognoscenti.

Party place: the original family dining room was where the Feltrinellis entertained their guests.

Staying there: Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli, Via Rimembranza 38-40, Gargnano, Italy (00 39 0365 798000; villafeltrinelli. com). Suites from £395 per night, including breakfast. The hotel reopens for the summer on 13 April.

4 Mustique's crown jewel

Princess Margaret's former neo-Georgian bungalow, Les Jolies Eaux, on Mustique regularly hosted glamorous parties where she entertained the likes of Mick Jagger, Roddy Llewellyn, Tommy Hilfiger et al. They say she loved this place, given to her by her old friend Lord Glenconner, more than any royal palace. Today, the property is available for private rentals. With views of both the Caribbean and Atlantic, it is the last word in luxury - as you'd expect from the home of a princess - with five ensuite bedrooms and staff.

Party place: the Princess Margaret Bedroom.

Staying there: Elegant Resorts Villas (01244 897444; elegantresorts. co.uk) offers Les Jolies Eaux from £9,340 per week, based on 10 people sharing, including private transfers. British Airways 0870 850 9850; ba.com) flies from Heathrow to Barbados from £398 return.

5 Club class in Scotland

Skibo, near Inverness, is where Madonna spent her wedding night. Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie threw house parties with guest lists that included Lloyd George, Gladstone and the Rockefellers. It is run now as The Carnegie Club, and the high-profile private members have no difficulty losing themselves in the 7,500 acres of grounds and get cosy inside the richly furnished stately rooms.

Party place: the Edwardian Drawing Room, one of Andrew Carnegie's favourite spaces.

Staying there: The Carnegie Club, Skibo Castle, Dornoch, Sutherland, Scotland (01862 894600; carnegieclub. co.uk). Prices for an initial visit and membership on application. EasyJet (0905 821 0905; easyJet.co.uk) flies from London to Inverness from £35 return.

6 Tis' the season to be jolly

Belles Rives, Juan-les-Pins, formerly the Villa Saint Louis, was rented by F Scott Fitzgerald and his glamorous wife, Zelda, for seven months in 1926. During that time, they and neighbouring friends the rich Murphy family made it the place to be. The rich and famous partied there and created the Côte d'Azur season, among them Rudolph Valentino, Picasso and Hemingway. In 1929 the house was bought by Boma Estène and became Hotel Belles Rives. Classic 1930s Art Deco design still rules throughout the public spaces and the 44 bedrooms. The clientele has included Edith Piaf and Ella Fitzgerald - today, expect to find A-listers like Cindy Crawford and Kevin Spacey.

Party place: the Fitzgerald Piano Bar, where F Scott and his wife entertained.

Staying there: Hotel Belles Rives, 33 Boulevard Edouard Baudoin, Juan-les-Pins, Cap d'Antibes, France (00 33 4 93 61 02 79; bellesrives.com). Doubles from €175 (£120) per room per night, including breakfast. The hotel reopens for the summer on 11 March.

7 New York's Parker people

The oldest operating hotel in New York City, from 1902, the Algonquin is renowned for the Dorothy Parker Round Table literary set. Other illustrious artistes who partied there include Gertrude Lawrence, Noël Coward and Tallulah Bankhead. Celebrities today who entertain there include Harry Connick Jnr and Jamie Cullum. Residents today include tourists with a keen interest in the hotel's illustrious past.

Party place: the Lerner's Suite, where Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe wrote My Fair Lady.

Staying there: The Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, New York (00 1 212 840 6800; algonquin hotel.com). Doubles from $249 (£142) per room per night. American Airlines (0845 778 9789; american airlines.co.uk) flies Heathrow to New York from £262 return.

8 Great and good at Perthshire

Kinnaird was bought in 1927 by the son of the Earl of Dudley, Sir John Ward, and was used as a private sporting estate by the Ward family until 1990 when it was converted into a private hotel, which is now a member of the Relais & Chateaux group. The estate attracted guests in the early years such as Merle Oberon. But no one will tell who visits today: discretion on the 9,000-acre estate is essential and it regularly welcomes royalty and Hollywood stars.

Party place: the Balmacneil Suite, where Lady Ward entertained the great and the good.

Staying there: Kinnaird, Kinnaird Estate, Dunkeld, Perthshire (01796 482440; kinnairdestate.com). Doubles from £385 per room per night. British Airways (as above) flies from Gatwick to Edinburgh from £62 return.

9 That Riviera touch of class

The Villa Soleil was built by a group of local businessmen and Russian aristocrats including Count Nicholas Stroganoff in 1863. It opened as the Eden Roc hotel in 1870 and quickly shot to fame as one of the most fashionable hang-outs on the Riviera. Guests who flocked there included Marlene Dietrich, the Windsors and Winston Churchill. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton conducted an affair and honeymooned there. Its luxuriousness is renowned, which is why Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise vie for the best suites today.

Party place: Room 644/645, one of the top suites, often referred to as the Madonna Suite, but for reasons we cannot, of course, reveal.

Staying there: Hotel du Cap Eden Roc, Boulevard Kennedy, Antibes, France (00 33 4 93 61 39 01; edenroc-hotel.fr). Doubles from €450 (£310) per room per night. EasyJet (as above) flies from Luton to Nice from £41 return. Closed until April.

10 A legend in Los Angeles

Hollywood legends don't come greater than the Chateau Marmont. Everyone who's anyone has stayed or partied there. Built in the early 1930s, it's where Clark Gable conducted his affair with Jean Harlow, where Paul Newman wooed Joanne Woodward, where Jim Morrison jumped off the roof of a cabana, and where John Belushi died of a heroin overdose. Bought by hotelier Andre Balazs in 1991, it was given a makeover - and a Hollywood legend made a stunning comeback. Beg to get a room and you will be the only person around the pool not reading a film script.

Party place: the Penthouse Suite, where Robert De Niro lived for two years.

Staying there: Chateau Marmont, 8221 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles (00 1 323 656 1010; chateaumarmont. com). Doubles from $315 (£180) per room per night. Virgin Atlantic (0870 574 7747; virgin atlantic.com) flies from Heathrow to LA from £342 return.

The best island life: On the hunt for clues

Burgh Island, off the Devon coast, enjoyed its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s. The historic guest list at this Art Deco property has included Edward VII and Wallis Simpson, Noël Coward, Amy Johnson and Agatha Christie - in fact, the crime novelist wrote Evil Under the Sun and Then There Were None in what is now the Christie Suite. Today guests are a mix, but they're all looking for decadent elegance and nostalgia. Burgh Island Hotel, Burgh Island, Bigbury-on-Sea, South Devon (01548 810514; burghisland. com). Doubles from £300 per room, half-board.

The best weekend retreat: The art of taking a break

The Grove was once one of the UK's most exclusive private homes, especially in the days of the Fourth Earl of Clarendon, when Saturday-to-Monday visiting first became fashionable. Guests have included Vita Sackville-West, Edward VII and George Stubbs, and the Drawing Room was the venue for Lord Palmerston's tea parties. Today's guests are young, affluent couples with kids. They come here to enjoy the 227 bedrooms, three restaurants, spa, children's centre and championship golf course. The Grove, Chandler's Cross, Herts (01923 807807; thegrove. co.uk). Doubles from £294 per room per night, room only.